Week 11 Rankings (2017): Top 50 Wide Receivers

by Will Overton

It’s interesting to look back at the rankings from Week 1 and look at where we are now in the wide receiver position. There’s been a lot of turnover at the top and if you are still stuck with the way you thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year you may be in trouble. How do things currently look? Let’s take a look at how they shake out for Week 11:

Antonio Brown – Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee

Doug Baldwin – Seattle Seahawks vs. Atlanta

Mike Evans – Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Miami

Julio Jones – Atlanta Falcons @ Seattle

Tyreek Hill – Kansas City Chiefs @ NY Giants

Michael Thomas – New Orleans Saints vs. Washington

A.J. Green – Cincinnati Bengals @ Denver

DeAndre Hopkins – Houston Texans vs. Arizona

Brandin Cooks – New England Patriots vs. Oakland

Golden Tate – Detroit Lions @ Chicago

Sterling Shepherd – New York Giants vs. Kansas City

Michael Crabtree – Oakland Raiders vs. New England

Adam Thielen – Minnesota Vikings vs. LA Rams

Jarvis Landry – Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay

Dez Bryant – Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia

Demaryius Thomas – Denver Broncos vs. Cincinnati

Amari Cooper – Oakland Raiders vs. New England

DaVante Parker – Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay

Robert Woods – Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota

JuJu Smith-Schuster – Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee

Larry Fitzgerald – Arizona Cardinals @ Houston

Stefon Diggs – Minnesota Vikings vs. LA Rams

Alshon Jeffrey – Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas

Keenan Allen – Los Angeles Chargers vs. Buffalo

Nelson Agholor – Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas

DaVante Adams – Green Bay Packers vs. Baltimore

Marvin Jones – Detroit Lions @ Chicago

Emmanuel Sanders – Denver Broncos vs. Cincinnati

Corey Davis – Tennessee Titans @ Pittsburgh

Jeremy Maclin – Baltimore Ravens @ Green Bay

Jordy Nelson – Green Bay Packers vs. Baltimore

Kelvin Benjamin – Buffalo Bills @ LA Chargers

Marquise Lee – Jacksonville Jaguars @ Cleveland

DeSean Jackson – Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Miami

Ted Ginn Jr – New Orleans Saints vs. Washington

Jamison Crowder – Washington Redskins @ New Orleans

Rishard Matthews – Tennessee Titans @ Pittsburgh

Danny Amendola – New England Patriots vs. Oakland

Mohamed Sanu – Atlanta Falcons @ Seattle

Cooper Kupp – Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota

Paul Richardson – Seattle Seahawks vs. Atlanta

Dontrelle Inman – Chicago Bears vs. Detroit

Tyler Lockett – Seattle Seahawks vs Atlanta

Mike Wallace – Baltimore Ravens @ Green Bay

Randall Cobb – Green Bay Packers vs. Baltimore

Sammy Watkins – Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota

Kenny Stills – Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay

Martavis Bryant – Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee

Cole Beasley – Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia

Josh Doctson – Washington Redskins @ New Orleans

Thoughts:

There is that natural inclination to worry about your wide receivers when they are set to face off with Seattle. I don’t think you need to worry about Julio Jones though. Seattle’s defense looks good but it’s not the force it once was and they just lost Richard Sherman last week, one of the biggest detractors to playing WR’s against them. We saw Seattle get schooled by Larry Fitzgerald catching passes from Drew Stanton, so Jones should be able to put up his typical big numbers.

It’s probably time that Golden Tate started to get recognition for how great he has been the last month. In his last four games he is averaging 7 catches and 98 yards per game, and has two TD scores as well. The matchup this week with the Bears isn’t plus or anything, but he has played the Saints and Steelers lately and done just fine. Tate’s floor is about as high as anyone in football right now.

You try not to overreact to one game, especially when it’s against the 49ers, but Sterling Shepard looked like a star last week as he hauled in 11 catches for 142 yards. The week before he went against a very tough Rams defense and still had five grabs for 70 yards too. Shepard is in another nice matchup this week against a weak Chiefs secondary and a game where the Giants will likely be down and throwing a ton. Even if you don’t buy the talent you can’t deny the fact that he’s one of only two legitimate pass catching threats on this team and that goes a long way.

It’s hard to know exactly what to do with Robert Woods, who has looked brilliant the last two weeks with four TD. Woods didn’t have a TD in the first seven games of the season, but he was still solid with consistent production. The last two games Woods has faced the Giants and Texans, and so the Vikings is a bit of a different story for Woods and his quarterback Jared Goff.

Trusting a Green Bay Packers wide receiver is not easy right now with Brett Hundley under center. That said, if you are going to use anyone in it should be Davante Adams. Hundley hasn’t been great, but he hasn’t been as bad as people are making him out to be. Adams has caught 12 passes the last two weeks and he found the end zone this last week against the Bears. Adams isn’t a Top 10 at the position anymore, but he’s hardly the unusable receiver some are making him out to be.

On the other side of the field from Green Bay on Sunday will be Baltimore and Jeremy Maclin, who I am still holding out hope for as a fantasy asset this season. Injuries have made it hard to get on the same page with Joe Flacco, but things have started to click the last two weeks. Maclin caught a TD ball two weeks ago and last week he caught eight passes for 98 yards. He is the clear number one option in Baltimore and the more games he can string together without an injury he should keep rising up this list.

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I can’t speak for Ray and how he slotted them here. Jeffrey is always a risk not to get targets though, especially with Ajayi and the potential for a run oriented attack. I think it could go either way between the two